When it rains for Sir Keir Starmer, it pours. Now it has emerged that during the Labour lot’s first year in office to June 2025, a whopping 111,000 people claimed asylum in the UK amid a surge in small boat crossings – up by a staggering 14 per cent on the previous 12 months. So much for smashing the gangs, eh?
Figures reveal that the numbers of those claiming asylum during this period was 8 per cent greater than the last asylum claim peak in 2002. Half of those looking for asylum entered the UK irregularly: four in ten arrived by small boat while an additional one in ten arrived via lorries, shipping containers or without the correct documents. Good heavens…
The areas with the highest proportions of asylum seekers included 'red wall' areas, such as England's North West and North East which have approximately 2,700 and 2,600 people per million residents respectively. However, while the number of people receiving asylum support in the UK has increased by 5 per cent year on year, this remains lower – by 14 per cent – than at the end of September 2023, when it reached 123,758.
And as if that wasn't enough bad news, while the use of hotels has fallen since last September, the number of people in migrant hotels has, in fact, increased under Starmer. In June 2024, just under 30,000 people were living in asylum hotels with 67,000 staying in other accommodations. In June 2025, 32,000 were being housed in hotels with 70,800 staying elsewhere. And, as James Heale writes on Coffee House, local authorities seem to be reaching their breaking point…
Immigration remains a top priority for Brits, while the taxpayer coughed up £3.1bn for asylum hotels last year. After Tuesday's landmark High Court ruling – which saw Epping Forest district council granted a temporary injunction that requires the area's Bell Hotel to stop housing asylum seekers within 24 days – more councils across the country are considering similar legal action. Yet the Labour lot don't seem all that sure where migrants will go, with security minister Dan Jarvis conducting a pretty disastrous interview on the airwaves on Wednesday morning. Starmer's army certainly has its work cut out…
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